The Dairy, Alfred Shakers, ca. 1915

The Alfred Shakers, a religious community, operated a commercial dairy.

In addition to Brothers and hired hands, Sisters helped operate the farm. Here the Sisters at Alfred are shown tending the dairy.

The cart to the far left was used to transport milk from the Cow Barn, the building with the cupola. The cans visible in the wheelbarrow and wagon were used for shipping milk via rail to Boston. Brother Stephen Gowen is driving the wagon.

Maine State Agricultural Exhibition, 1860

At state agricultural exhibitions farmers could earn premiums for top animals and crops or diplomas and medals for trades goods, farm equipment, arts and crafts of various kinds.

The 1860 exhibition was held in Portland.

William C. Hammatt of Howland was president and Ezekiel Holmes of Winthrop, sometimes called the "father of Maine agriculture," was secretary of the Maine State Agricultural Society, which sponsored the exhibition.

Blueberry lease, Cherryfield, 1888

Blueberries, one of several crops identified with Maine, grow wild in much of the state and are mentioned in some early accounts of European encounters with Maine Indians.

Commercial harvesting began in the 1840s and soon thereafter Maine became the first place to can blueberries, many years ahead of other states.

Abijah Tabbot's development of a metal blueberry rake in 1882 helped make the industry profitable, as did the shift by the last quarter of the century to privately owned blueberry barrens. Until then, the fields were considered public and anyone might harvest the ripe berries.

Hanford Larsen farm, Easton, ca. 1910

Potatoes are one of the state's best-known agricultural products and Aroostook County with its long, cold winters and a short, cool growing season is perfect for potatoes.

Many farmers in the state grew potatoes in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Before the Civil War, Kennebec, Lincoln, Cumberland, York, Somerset and Waldo counties all contributed to Maine's potato crop, which was second only to New York.

These potatoes fed animals, the farmer and his family, or were sold, mostly to nearby stores or markets.

Farm laborers, Presque Isle, 1917

When railroads reached Aroostook County in the years after the Civil War, agriculture blossomed.

Factories that turned potatoes into starch began in Oxford, Franklin and Somerset counties as early as the 1840s. By the 1880s, there were 20 starch factories in the state.

The earliest starch factory in Aroostook County was started in 1871.

Thanks largely to the availability of rail transportation, potato production increased drastically between the 1860 and 1890 as did the number of horses, cattle, sheep, hay and oats in Aroostook County.

Frank Longstaff farm, Crystal, ca. 1922

Bangor & Aroostook Railway had opened a line to Houlton in January 1894 and branch lines soon followed.

In a 10-year period -- 1890-1900 -- 1,000 new farms were started in Aroostook County. Potatoes dominated the county.

In 1910, a Colorado potato farmer said, "Houlton . . . is the only place where I have been talked to a standstill on the subject of potatoes. I never met people who were so eager for knowledge in connection with potatoes." (Clarence A. Day, Farming in Maine, 1860-1940, University of Maine Studies, Second Series, No. 78)